Ender Dragon
|Damage = |drop = None (activates Exit Portal and spawns a Dragon Egg there) |spawn = The End |fa = Beta 1.9 Pre-release 6 |idb = 63 |exp = First: 12,000 Subsequent: 500 |techname = ender_dragon }} The Ender Dragon is a hostile boss mob that appears in the End dimension and is the final boss of the original Minecraft. The Ender Dragon is a large dragon that breathes fire, spits fireballs, and is able to fly with great ease and maneuverability. Overview Since Beta 1.9 pre-release 6, a single Ender Dragon appears in each world's End dimension and can be fought and killed. The Ender Dragon swoops at a player, destroying any blocks she passes through, except obsidian, indestructible blocks (such as bedrock), iron bars, and End stone. Once an Ender Dragon is killed, an end gateway appears within the vicinity, with a dragon egg on top. The End gateway leads to the "Outer End". Upon defeat, the Ender Dragon explodes and drops around 12,000 experience orbs (which take a player with no experience to around level 78), activates the Exit Portal, and spawns a dragon egg on top of the portal frame. Entering this portal will play the End Poem and the Minecraft credits, and afterward, the player will be sent back to their last saved spawn point. When one Ender Crystal is placed on each edge of the Exit Portal -for a total of 4- the Dragon will respawn. However, when defeated, she will drop less experience than before (500 XP orbs) and will not summon another dragon egg when slain. Appearance The Ender Dragon is a large, black dragon with glowing purple eyes. She is the largest implemented mob in the game. Only the unimplemented giant is larger. She has a few dark gray features, such as the wings, and various other parts of her body. Similar to the eyes of Endermen and spiders, the Ender Dragon's eyes are visible through darkness, so a player will be able see her coming through the dark sky of the End. Behavior Ender Dragons attack by charging at a player's lower waist, with their wings tucked in and diving downward. If hit with anything while swooping towards a player, even a fist, she will turn around and fly away. If anything besides end stone (various types, too), bedrock, iron bars, and obsidian touches her, she will break through. End Crystals that sit on top of the obsidian towers will heal her. The Ender Dragon flies around the sky and shoots purple fire charges (Ender acid). This Ender acid, unlike a ghast fireball, can't be deflected. After a while, she will go down and hover above the inactive End portal while constantly spraying Ender acid out of her mouth, similar to how a dragon breathes fire when attacking. Strategy The 5X5 obsidian platform spawn point may not be directly connected to the center island of the End. As such, a bridge may need to be built. It is a good idea to bring scaffolding blocks to the End, particularly ones the Ender Dragon cannot destroy (e.g., obsidian and iron bars), so a player can access the main island. The alternative is to bring Ender pearls. Once they have entered the End, it is crucial to destroy as many of the Ender Crystals as possible before going after the boss, preferably with a bow or snowballs, although it will be necessary to climb some of the towers to break iron bars around some of the crystals. However, climbing the obsidian towers can be extremely dangerous, as there is a high chance of falling off and dying, and even if a player does not fall off, the Ender Dragon will likely knock a player off anyway. A way to mitigate the damage from this is to have boots with a high Feather Falling enchantment, or a bucket of water you can place under you to negate any fall damage. Due to the way iron bars connect to blocks around them, it is possible to shoot an arrow through the bottom of the iron bars in order to hit the crystal within. Provided the tower is low enough this method can completely remove the danger of climbing the towers. However it should be noted lining up the shot can take a considerable amount of time and focus depending on a player's skill, which could leave them open to attacks from the Ender Dragon. Afterward, a player must defeat the actual Ender Dragon. A skilled archer with a powerful bow can deal a lot of damage to the dragon. However, when the dragon is perched on the exit portal, it becomes necessary to use a sword, as she is immune to arrows at this time. Standing under the Ender Dragon's head will allow a player to strike her while encountering a minimal risk of injury or death from the Dragon's breath. You can also utilize beds, as they explode similar to TNT if you try to use them in the End. All you must do is dig a 1-block deep hole, wait for the Ender Dragon to dive at you and blow up the bed when it is within range. Take anything to the End that could be possibly needed. The worst thing about the End is the potential to run out of resources and get stuck. (This includes food, you want to be able to replenish health at any possible chance.) Wear a carved pumpkin so Endermen won't attack, but beware that this reduces how much armor a player can have and severely impairs vision. Pay attention to the Endermen as well as Ender Dragon. The Endermen are just as likely to kill a player as the Ender Dragon if a pumpkin isn't being worn. Never stay in one place. If timing movements accordingly, it is very hard for the Ender Dragon to score a hit. Have enchanted weapons and armor. Enchanted bows and swords cause significantly more damage to Endermen and the Ender Dragon, while enchanted armor offers more protection from damage. If possible, fight the Dragon as a group. Attempts to kill the Ender Dragon with just one person is considerably more difficult. Hitting the head of the Dragon deals the full damage of the weapon; hitting her anywhere else deals a quarter of the regular damage. Always keep an eye on Endermen, as if enough are provoked, they may prove even larger of a threat than the Dragon herself. Look up as much as possible to limit attention received by Endermen if not wearing a pumpkin. The only way out is death if there are no more resources. Beds used in the End explode. Caution should be exerted in doing this, but exploding beds when the Ender Dragon is perched on the exit portal may be prudent. Avoid going near the island's edge as much as possible; falling off virtually guarantees certain death. The best time to open the inventory is right after dodging an attack, as it will be the greatest between the Ender Dragon's next attack-which could even kill the unaware. Trivia *Ender Dragons spawned in the End via commands will have a health bar shown. Those spawned in the Overworld or Nether will not. *The "Outer End" can actually be reached without killing the Dragon. It is about 1000 blocks away from the center island. *If, through modding/hacking/commands, the Ender Dragon is spawned in the Overworld, when killed, the portal that spawns under it will lead to The End. However, this is no longer the case as of the 1.9 Combat Update. **This can be mimicked if one uses /summon ender_dragon ~ ~ ~ {DragonPhase: 1}, as the dragon will be moving, but will not attack the player. *If the Ender Dragon flies into or over any Overworld blocks that a player has placed, they will be destroyed without dropping anything. The only legitimate exception is obsidian, which can be found in the End as well. *It is possible to get the Wither to fight her, but the Wither will deal close to no damage as the Ender Dragon does not take damage from status effects and/or mob attacks. *Ender Dragons can be used as somewhat inefficient tunnel borers or mining devices. If players mod their game, they can make the Ender Dragon destroy ores as drops to make things better. *If ghasts are spawned in the End via spawn eggs or commands, their fireballs may hit the Ender Dragon, though the fireballs will cause little (if any) damage. *The Ender Dragon was the first boss to be released. Many speculate that the giant was meant to be the first boss. However, this has never been confirmed. *The Ender Dragon cannot destroy entities, such as the minecart. * There is an Ender Dragon plush toy that was recently made available for the public. * Notch made a Reddit post about the Dragon, referring to it as a "she", and calling her Jean. * The Ender Dragon is able to fly past the world border and past the max terrain generation distance. See Far Lands. *If the Ender Dragon is killed above an obsidian tower, a portion of the tower will be removed as shown. * In 1.9, the Ender Dragon can shoot dragon's breath that works like instant damage combined with Knockback III, making it virtually impossible to kill. * There is a way to inflict good damage to the Ender Dragon by placing a bed and waiting until the Ender Dragon gets too close and gets damaged by the explosion of the bed. ** There is a rumor alleging that someone killed the Ender Dragon with only 3 beds. This is unconfirmed. * Using a glass bottle and clicking on the dragon’s breath when she attacks will gain the item dragon's breath which can be used to make Lingering Potions. *Red Dragons were meant to be added into the game by Notch, but were eventually scrapped and replaced with the Ender Dragon. Dinnerbone says that he is still interested in adding these tamable, ridable mobs, unlikely as bosses. *The Ender Dragon can't destroy certain placed blocks, such as the Endstone. Gallery Category:Mobs Category:Hostile Mobs Category:Bosses Category:The End Category:Entity Category:Gameplay